Text Message Love
by the blank paper
Summary: Sakura and Sasuke have been communicating via text messages for months before starting school, giving Sakura a strange kinship with the teen, much to his admirers disgust. Sakura joins a fiercely competitive school that teaches Shinobi arts. SasuSaku. AU
1. Meet, Sulk, Text

**Sasuke's phone**

**Neji**

_Sasuke? Are you alright?_

03/06/11

13:39:18

**Ino**

_Where r u? Iruka-sensei_

_is relly mad! Xxx_

03/06/11

14:12:06

**Ino**

_you cant just walk out of _

_a lesson! Xxx_

03/06/11

15:23:00

**Dobe**

_Sasuke, Im really sorry_

_about Itachi._

03/06/11

15:46:02

Sasuke lay back on the grass, arms folded behind his head. He breathed in deeply, ignoring the phone in his pocket, which kept buzzing wildly, signalling a new text message. Presumably, news of his abrupt departure from class had reached his friends. Finally, when the vibrating became a little too annoying, he flipped the mobile open with a scowl, quickly scanning the messages from Neji, Ino and Naruto.

_Delete._

The school was in his sights, he was lying on the hill opposite the building, watching the students file out in groups, even being able to hear their distant laughter and shouts. Tenten, with her noticeable hairstyle, hit Lee – equally noticeable, for other reasons – with her bag, laughing as he chased her, waving his arms in mock-anger. Sasuke could just make out Neji following behind them, too cool to give chase when Lee messed up his hair as he ran past, Tenten in hot pursuit.

Sasuke scrolled down his texts until he reached the one that he had quickly become obsessed with.

**Itachi**

_I'm sorry, little brother._

17/05/11

01:33:19

Sasuke bit down on his lip, hard, and flung the phone away from him with a shout of anger.

He jumped when he heard an answering cry of pain. He sat up and looked in the direction of where he had thrown the phone. A girl of about his age lay further down the hill, rubbing her head. She had pink hair, the exact colour of bubblegum, an obnoxious shade that shone even brighter under the sun. She was wearing a smart, buttoned up pinafore, the kind you saw on little kids with strict parents or school dress codes, white tights and black, shiny shoes. She looked like some kind of punk doll with a stern sense of principles.

"Hey, what the hell?" She yelled, holding up his phone and waving it at him, "That really hurt!" Her eyes were edged with thick coats of black eyeliner, with dustings of pink glitter eye shadow.

Sasuke was struck by the absurdity of the girl's appearance, half nun-like, half punk. That, coupled with the fact that he'd somehow hit her on the head with his phone, was enough to make him laugh. He had a deep, startling laugh, and he found it difficult to stop once he'd started. The girl watched him, a dumbfounded expression on her pretty face, until she realised the humour of the situation and began to smile.

The girl stood up, brushing strands of grass and dirt off her clothes, and made her way towards him. Sasuke's laughter died down to a smirk as she approached. "Hey," She said, with a wry smile, handing him the phone back, "I'm Sakura. If you wanted my number, you could have just asked, no need to potentially maim me." Sasuke felt a flicker of surprise at the girl's flippant attitude, until he saw the light blush on her cheeks. He waited for a while, aware that she was anxious, waiting to be rejected, and finally took mercy on her and gestured for her to give him her phone.

She handed it over. It was shiny, expensive, and rose-red. He raised his eyebrows, before sighing and keying her number into his phone. He allowed her to do the same with hers, but only after giving her a dire warning not to spread his number around.

"So," She said lightly, sitting down next to him with a thump, "I've told you my name."

"And?" He closed his eyes, a smirk covering his face.

"And…" Sakura paused, "I need to know what name to put in my phone."

If he told her his name, she would know exactly who he was. He wasn't exactly flying under the press radar these days.

"No," He smirked even wider at the disappointment on her face, "It's not that easy."

"What the hell?" She moaned, throwing her hands up in disgust. She suddenly recovered, giving him a positively evil look, "You do realise this means I'm going to have to give you a nickname, right?"

Sasuke stiffened before shooting her a glare, already regretting giving her his number. It had been a spur of the moment thing; he hadn't really thought it through.

Sakura quickly typed something into her phone, squinted at the screen and gasped aloud.

"Oh my god! It's so late! I've got to go, sorry Sulky!" Sakura gathered up her things and made a move to leave.

Sasuke's death glare stopped her. "W-what?" She asked, a little scared.

"Sulky."

"That's my nickname for you! I really gotta go, sorry, bye!" Sakura ran off, apparently not noticing the look of utter horror on Sasuke's face at the appalling nickname.

For a full minute he just lay there, on his own.

"Sulky." He repeated in disbelief.

**

* * *

**

**Sulky**

_Ever get the feeling that _

_everyone's talking about_

_you?_

10/09/11

07:49:00

Sakura glanced at her phone when it trilled a cute little melody, signalling a text message. It was Sulky. They'd been texting each other for months now, since the day they first met. And he still hadn't told her his name.

She typed out a reply, fingers whizzing over the keys with practiced ease.

**Sakura**

_Actually, no. That sounds_

_like paranoia to me. Get_

_checked out, maybe? X_

04/09/11

07:52:41

She went back to her early morning stretches, curving one graceful arm over to touch her ankle, over and back again, feeling her muscles stretch pleasantly. It was early morning, her first day at her new school, and she was exercising to take her mind off her worries. Her aunt, Tsunade, kept grumbling in her sleep loudly. She was in the only bedroom. Sakura had just spent a rather long and uncomfortable night on the sofa, hence the need to stretch out the kinks. Her breakfast was oatmeal with a side of grapefruit, cut into mouth-watering chunks, and a glass of iced water. All things considered, it was quite a peaceful start to the day.

Her phone trilled happily again. She peered at the screen whilst brushing her hair.

**Sulky**

_Helpful. And no, it isn't _

_paranoia, actually. I'm_

_well aware of the __**fact **__that _

_people are talking about_

_me._

04/09/11

07:58:23

She grinned at the irritable reply and made her own a little sweeter, just to piss him off.

**Sakura**

_That's what any self-_

_respecting paranoiac _

_would say __X _

04/09/11

08:01:57

The new school she was to be attending was the hot topic of her and Sulky's texting. Her worries, her fashion choices, etc. Not that he seemed terribly interested in the _exact_ shade of eye shadow she was thinking of wearing. She looked around the tiny, cramped flat, and winced at the sight of all the unwashed dishes and cardboard boxes that littered the surfaces and tables. Tsunade always seemed to mess up the flat so easily, it was only ever truly clean when her assistant, Shizune, came over to visit. Somehow, the poor woman always seemed to end up cleaning the place whenever she came round.

Sakura ended up using a smoky grey eye shadow, thickly outlining her eyes in black eyeliner. Her lips were covered with cherry-scented lip gloss. Her hair was tied into a loose bun and she wore a demure white and pink spotted dress with a black cardigan and black tights. Her 'look' was chic with an attitude.

The sun had already risen by the time she left, bag on back and bottle of water in hand. She closed the door as quietly as possible, not wanting to wake her aunt. Her trusty bike was resting against the fencing outside the flat, not even chained up. It was a reliable purchase, because it was so banged up and hideous-looking that no thief in their right mind would go near it, let alone steal it. She hopped on, the seat warm from the sun, trying not to snag her tights as she began to pedal, water bottle clenched between her teeth. The pedals screeched noisily as she forced the bike up a hill, until she was forced to walk alongside it, pushing it along. She checked her texts on the way up, and smiled at the surprisingly sweet message from her text-buddy.

**Sulky**

_Sakura. Don't worry about_

_starting school. You'll be_

_fine._

04/09/11

08:26:54

There were already students at the school by the time she got there, a few of them fighting, most of them laughing. Sakura pushed her bike into the bike rack carefully, and then gave it a fond pat on the handlebars and walked off in the vague direction of the main building. She'd been there a few times before, and was grateful that she didn't have to stop and ask a student for directions. Some of them looked downright hostile. The school was enormous, with signs everywhere proclaiming that they were welcome in every language. The floor was white with splashes of green and purple. Every room in the reception had glass walls, so as she walked in she could see the secretaries gabbing away on the phones, official-looking men and women in suits talking solemnly, rows of computers with employees with headsets typing furiously.

Sakura dodged a kunai instinctively, and turned, body already moving into a defensive position when she saw her assailant.

It was a boy around her age, with wild-looking hair and red triangle tattoos on his cheeks, a roguish grin on his face. He was with another guy, who was slightly taller, with dark, afro-like hair and sunglasses despite being indoors. A girl joined them, panting, having run to get to them. She had long dark hair and pale lilac eyes. Had she not already ran up to them without hindrance, Sakura would have assumed she was blind. "What the hell," Sakura said slowly, with emphasis, "are you doing?"

The guy with facial tattoos grinned even wider, revealing fangs. "Just testing. Your reflexes are good, by the way."

"You moved into a halfway defensive position whilst you simultaneously reached for a kunai." The guy in the sunglasses commented, "Offense and defence is a good mix, but when you don't know who is attacking you, it is best to focus completely on defence, to prevent injury or death."

Sakura stared. The tattoo guy looked a little surprised too, "Wow, Shino, didn't know you were physically capable of saying more than, 'interesting.'"

"Kiba." Shino sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

For a minute, Kiba just ignored him, but eventually became curious. "What?" He finally said, annoyed.

The girl coughed to get Sakura's attention whilst Kiba attempted to goad Shino into a fight.

"I'm Hyuuga Hinata." The girl smiled and gave a respectful bow.

Sakura barely remembered her manners enough to give a quick bow and murmur her name in reply.

"Oh!" She said, recalling the timetable Tsunade had printed off for her, "Could you show me how to get to the advanced Genjutsu class, please?"

She didn't miss the look of surprise on the other girl's face before it was quickly smothered by another polite smile, "Um, I don't know where it is, but I do know someone who does…" She trailed off.

"This is so troublesome." Sakura's guide complained for the seventh time as they walked side by side, down the hall.

"Shikamaru-san?" Sakura raised her eyebrows.

He grunted in response.

"How is you walking me to where you were originally going, troublesome?" Sakura questioned politely.

Shikamaru was silent for a while, presumably pondering this.

The halls were getting noticeably fuller as the time came closer to nine o'clock; Sakura saw instantly that the Konoha students were a mixed breed. The gangs of people in the corridor were not grouped by a certain category –e.g. Emo, Skater, Prep, - but all seemed rather unique in themselves. She saw a boy with a handsome, absent-looking face and slick black hair, sitting on the floor outside a classroom, inking thick black lines onto paper. When she looked closer, she was stunned by the distasteful phallic imagery. She saw a teacher with a shock of white hair despite his obvious youth and a scar running down one eye. There was a girl who had hair similar to Sulky, spiky and somewhat lopsided, though hers was bright red and she wore fashionable thick glasses and slightly revealing clothes.

And even her guide was interesting, with his fishnet shirt, spiky ponytail, single silver earring and nicotine-stained fingers.

They eventually reached a room with a plaque above the door reading, 'Advanced Genjutsu,' with a sheet of paper stuck below it with, 'For Freaks and Geeks,' written in penned scrawl.

They ground to a halt outside.

"Is…this not a popular class?" Sakura asked, a little uneasy. She and Shikamaru were being stared at pretty hard. Even the handsome artist had put down his pen in order to stare in their direction.

Shikamaru shrugged and said easily, "Does it matter?"

"I guess not."

He – rather considerately, she thought to herself – opened the door for her. Inside a few students were already seated, gossiping about the summer holiday and who did what with _whom_, like ohmygosh! Sakura rolled her eyes. And then promptly panicked, because Shikamaru had left her side.

"Shikamaru-san!" Sakura hissed. He stopped, wheezing, halfway to collapsing into his chair. He appeared to have the stamina of a badly injured eighty year old man with no knees.

"What?"

"Where do I sit?"

"You'll have to wait at the front for the teacher to assign you a seat." He yawned.

And so Sakura stood beside the teacher's desk, wishing for millionth time that her hair wasn't quite so noticeable or resistant to dye, as every student that walked in the room gawped at her. It was quite exhausting, keeping up a cheerful smile whilst every other student – none of them seemed to have any sense of personal space – stared at her.

A young woman with a surprisingly beautiful face walked into the room, a dark mane of hair making her pale skin stand out, especially next to her dark red lipstick. She sat at her desk and tapped it once with a ruler. The class immediately fell silent. The teacher made a sharp gesture with the ruler, and they all sat down. Except for Sakura, who was desperately clutching onto her beatific smile and standing like a freaking gooseberry, horribly conspicuous as she was only one standing.

The woman, seemingly unaware of her presence, began to call out the register.

Students drowsily answered as their names were called.

The teacher reached the 'H's and called out, "Hyuuga Neji?"

Sakura watched as a smartly dressed student with long hair raised his hand. He had the same last name as Hinata… Sakura was just musing on this when she realised her own name was being called.

"Haruno Sakura?"

"Oh! Present! Here, yes!" She babbled, flustered. Hyuuga Neji was giving her a contemptuous look.

"I'm sorry," The teacher smiled, "I didn't realise you were the new student. I'm Kurenai-sensei. Would you like to take your seat next to Hyuuga-san?"

Great, the scary guy with the strangely luscious-looking hair. She took her seat with great reluctance. Neji gave her a sideways glance as she sat down. Yes, his eyes were the same, strange pale shade as Hinata's. Definitely a relation of some sort.

The door opened and another student strolled in casually, as though his being late was a privilege they should all appreciate. Kurenai gave him a slight glare and ticked off his name on the register pointedly. "Yes, thank you for finally joining us, Uchiha-san. Take your seat."

Sakura looked up to visually bitch-slap the tardy student with a glare, and felt a jolt in her stomach as her eyes landed on his frozen form. He appeared to have spotted her as well. She felt a bizarre urge to check her phone as she stared at his sullen, gorgeous face.

It was Sulky.

_

* * *

_

_I hope everyone likes this! In case it's not clear, Sulky = Sasuke, he never tells Sakura his real name for reasons that will be withheld until further chapters. They've been constantly keeping up a text conversation for about three months but haven't met again till now…_

_I've been toying with the idea of a NejiSaku fic for a while, but this is obviously going to be Sasusaku, I'm just not sure whether or not to add a degree of unrequited affection on either Sakura's or Neji's part, just to make things interesting. Naruto, Ino and Lee will show up, just obviously, not in the Advanced Genjutsu class._


	2. Learn, Fight, Text

Sakura slowly became aware that she was staring at Sulky, mouth gaping open. She promptly shut it. He looked as shocked as she did, only with less visible emotion, considering the fact that he seemed incapable of using more than one default facial expression.

"Sulky?" She said disbelievingly. The students around began to take notice, looking around at them. Neji looked at her sharply, a hint of confusion and suspicion in his pale eyes.

"Sakura?" Sulky replied, in the same disbelieving tone. Neji looked back and forth between them both.

"Uchiha-san, please take a seat." Kurenai-sensei said with a frown on her pretty face.

"This is great!" Sakura shouted happily. The class fell silent, and Sakura blushed as about twenty pairs of eyes swivelled around to stare at her.

"Do you two know each other?" Neji asked.

The class erupted into whispers.

"That girl knows Sasuke-kun?"

"Have you seen her before?"

"I think she's new."

Sulky ignored the intense stares he was receiving, and stepped towards Sakura, "I guess you know my name now."

"I guess you really weren't being paranoid." Sakura smiled, looking around at all the people talking about them. She paused, licked her lips and added, "Sasuke."

Sasuke gave her a smirk.

"Uchiha-san!" Kurenai snapped, "Seat. Now."

Sasuke sat down next to a girl with long black hair and bell earrings. She gave him a seductive smile.

"Right, now that Uchiha-san has graciously deemed it time for the class to begin, let's discuss Kekkei Genkai…" Kurenai-sensei's lecture was one of the most detailed and interesting descriptions of bloodlines Sakura had ever heard. By the end of the class, her book was filled with notes on Kekkei Genkai and its cultural ramifications.

Sakura noticed that Sasuke wasn't taking notes. He was looking out the window with a bored expression.

If Kurenai-sensei noticed his lack of attention, she ignored it. After Advanced Genjutsu was over, Sakura hurried to the headmistress' office, her timetable signalling she had an appointment with her. The waiting room had a dentist feeling about it, all the occupants were looking uneasy and dread hung in the air. Sakura sat down on a wooden bench, next to a sleeping Shikamaru, who had been kicked out of class by an irate Kurenai-sensei.

The Headmistress' door creaked open slowly. A white face appeared in the doorway, "Haruno Sakura. The Headmistress will see you now…" It said gloomily, before slowly withdrawing into the shadow of the room. Sakura took a deep breath, gathered her courage and entered the room.

"Oh Sakura…" A new voice moaned, "Get rid of that light."

Sakura slid the door shut with her foot.

"Cheers." Tsunade said, rubbing her forehead. She was sitting at a large desk, sake glasses and bottles littering the surface. She had her arm in a pool of alcohol, oblivious to the fact that her sleeve was currently soaking up sake.

"Rough night?" Sakura asked, without sympathy. She'd endured too many nights of her aunt and her assistant wailing on the karaoke machine.

Achy Breaky Heart was no longer allowed in the flat.

Or any show tune.

Shizune looked just as pale and ill as Tsunade, dark circles around her eyes and beads of sweat visible on her forehead. "The worst," She grunted, "I can't remember anything from yesterday."

"I don't think I had breakfast." Tsunade said mournfully. Her stomach growled.

"You did, but you threw it up all over me." Shizune reminded her.

"Oh yeah."

"Tsunade – " Sakura started to say.

"Tsunade-_sama_." The headmistress corrected, her words slurred, "Show some respect."

Sakura looked at the mess of sake and paper on Tsunade's desk pointedly, "Respect? I'll show you some respect if you can tell me how many fingers I'm holding up." She held up seven in front of Tsunade's face.

Tsunade's eyes crossed. "I'm hungry." She mumbled.

"Oh for God's sake!" Sakura shouted and rounded on Shizune, "Why you did let her drink? You know how she gets when she's had alcohol. And you!" She turned back to Tsunade, "Why are you here, at your job, drunk?"

"Sakura…" Shizune warned.

"No! I'm tired of you! I'm tired of finding alcohol bottles in the laundry, the washing never being done, you gambling all our money and _losing_, and you –"

"Sakura!" Shizune snapped. She sighed, and lowered her voice. "It was the anniversary of his death yesterday."

Sakura's hand, which she had been pointing at Tsunade accusingly, dropped down to her side limply. "Dan?" She was horrified.

Shizune nodded, jaw clenched and tears glittering in her eyes.

Sakura turned back to Tsunade. The woman was slumped over her desk, holding a sake bottle loosely. Sakura gently eased it out of her hand, and threw it in the bin.

"I'll clean up the office, Tsunade-sama." Sakura said kindly. The older woman gave her a weak smile, her face wet with tears.

It took only ten minutes to clear the office of all sake bottles and stained papers, five more minutes to wipe down the desk to get rid of any stickiness and twelve and half minutes to cheer Tsunade up.

"So, Sakura," Tsunade said when everything had been cleaned, "I wanted to let you know that there's going to be an exam held soon. You're a bit new to the school to be entered, so it's your choice whether you want to participate or not."

"What kind of exam?"

"A tournament, of sorts. I'll give the rank of chuunin to whoever impresses me."

"I will participate." Sakura said firmly.

"You'd be up against some of the strongest genin in the country."

"Bring it on." Sakura punched her fist, enthusiastic. A tournament! A chance to not only prove her skills, but become a chuunin in the process!

Chuunin was one of the highest honours a school could give you. It meant that your lessons were upgraded, you were given a _sash_ and had unlimited access to the library. Twenty. Four. Seven. For a geek like Sakura, this was almost too much.

* * *

The best thing about being sent out of class for falling asleep was that you could simply fall asleep again outside the headmistress' office and no one would move you. Shikamaru was snoring gently, his chest rising and falling as he slept, head resting against the wall, his body in an uncomfortable-looking position on the bench. There were a few light footsteps, the muffled sounds of Shizune talking and Tsunade replying, and then Shikamaru – a light sleeper – became aware of a presence in front of him. He cracked open one eye, and immediately his vision was filled by someone's cleavage in his face. He moved backwards quickly, cracking his head against the wall painfully. He groaned and rubbed the tender spot.

When he looked up, the owner of the cleavage was smirking at him. It was a girl, a little older than him, with dark blonde hair in four pigtails and blue-green eyes, which were currently sparkling with mischief. She was dressed in a sleeveless black top that barely covered her chest and black skinny jeans with big boots. She had a tattoo of a kanji letter on her shoulder. "Have a nice nap?" She asked, her tone mocking and a little sultry. Shikamaru scowled and moved further away from her. She leant in closer.

"Who are you?" He asked, suppressing a yawn, still feeling sleepy.

She placed her hands on her hips. "Temari. And you're my new boyfriend."

Shikamaru stared at her warily, half wondering if he was still asleep. "A little forward, don't you think?"

"My policy is to live in the now." She replied, still smirking at him.

"Look, lady." He finally gave in to the yawn, "you obviously have some issues, you know," he made a vague gesture towards his head, "up there, so I'm just going to go back to sleep."

Temari placed her hands on the armrests of the bench Shikamaru was occupying. "And you _obviously_ misunderstood me. When I said you were my boyfriend, I wasn't _asking_."

"I am not going to date someone who is, one, obviously crazy, two, someone I don't know, three, older than me." Shikamaru counted off his reasons on his fingers, "Plus, you don't just force someone into a relationship."

Temari blinked. Then slowly smiled. "I like you." She announced, "I think I'll keep you."

"Good luck with that." He snorted and then closed his eyes in a hopeless attempt to get back to sleep.

He opened his eyes hurriedly when he felt something warm and wet on his lips.

Temari laughed at the utterly shocked look on his face. The door to the headmistress' office opened and a short, red-headed teen with thick dark lines around his eyes walked out. "Done already?" Temari asked, sounding disappointed.

The red head looked at Shikamaru briefly, eyes lingering on the blush on his cheeks before looking back at Temari. "Come, Temari. Leave the kid alone."

Shikamaru bristled at the term 'kid' being used by someone so obviously younger than himself. Temari left obediently, but not until she'd blown a kiss at the lazy teen on the bench.

Shikamaru, despite being a genius, couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that his first kiss had been _stolen_ by a girl he didn't even know.

* * *

"Favourite food?" Sakura asked, eyeing up the dumplings with something like lust. She smoothed her polka-dot dress down, trying to protect it from the various spills of the cafeteria.

Sasuke shrugged, picked up an apple and inspected it briefly before putting it on his lunch tray. "I don't have one."

"Liar. OK, favourite music?" Sakura began to ladle the dumplings into a bowl.

"None."

"Boring. Type of girl?" Sakura asked casually, her mind on the delicious prize that awaited her once they got to their table. Mmm, dumplings.

"What?" Sasuke's eyebrows shot up in surprise, "I don't like any particular kind of girl."

"Oh sorry. Type of guy?"

"I'm not. …" Sasuke trailed off, the tiniest blush barely visible on his cheeks.

"Hm, you are mysterious. I bet I can guess what all your favourite stuff is, though." Sakura grinned, making it a challenge. Sasuke finally finished loading his tray – full of tomatoes, the weirdo - and they sat at a table near the canteen's window.

"Guess away." He sighed, beginning to bite into his apple.

"OK. Favourite food? Tomato." She smirked when he looked surprised, and pointed at his tray, full of the ripe fruit, "Kind of a giveaway. Favourite music? Heavy metal, right?" She mimed playing a guitar, strumming with her hands.

"Wrong."

"Crap. Right, type of girl. Um…" Sakura stared intently into his face. He stared back, confident that she wouldn't be able to guess. After all, it's not like he kept his favourite type of girl on his lunch tray, right? Unlike the tomatoes.

"Quiet!" She shouted triumphantly. A few students gave her odd looks.

"Wrong."

"Damn. Uh, shy?"

"Not even close."

"Pretty."

"I don't care about looks."

"Says the guy who clearly gets through a tub of hair gel a day. Intelligent."

"Yes."

"Yes! Point for me." Sakura made an air grab of triumph. "Oh! You don't like quiet… so you like loud!"

"Actually, the volume of the girl isn't that important to me." He muttered sarcastically, spearing another tomato with his fork.

"Long hair?"

Sasuke made a face.

"_Short _hair?"

Sasuke made a little 'so-so' gesture with his hand.

"…Bald."

Sasuke wordlessly ate another tomato, ignoring Sakura completely.

"Skinny."

"Why are we doing this again?" Sasuke exhaled, annoyed by Sakura's incessant, rapid-fire interrogation.

"It's fun!" Sakura said perkily. At Sasuke's glare, she deflated. "You could always ask me some questions."

"Fine," He said, so quickly that Sakura grew worried. What was he going to ask…? "Type of guy?"

"Nice." Sakura said promptly, "sweet, considerate, funny and modest."

Sasuke looked pained.

"What?" She asked, confused.

"Nothing," He dismissed it with a shake of his head, "Favourite food?"

Sakura wondered if he was changing the subject for a particular reason. "Dumplings. Obviously." She smiled dryly, gesturing at her own tray full of dumplings.

"Music?"

"All types!"

"Impossible."

"No, honestly!"

"Even rap?"

"I love rap!"

"…No you don't."

* * *

Neji Hyuuga had one friend. Sakura had seen him about town, always clad in sportswear and leg weights, never casual clothes and was always yelling about Youth and The Importance of Dental Care.

Sakura met a nice, sporty girl called Tenten in Taijutsu class. She had a surprisingly sweet voice and had her hair in cute buns. Taijutsu class should really have been renamed, 'The Class That Kicks Sakura's Ass,' purely because she couldn't seem to get through one session without bruising something in an awkward place. Her coccyx, for instance. Funny to say, not so funny once you've had it smacked against the floor repeatedly by an over-zealous guy in spandex. The guy in spandex was also the guy in sportswear, Neji's only friend, Lee. He was adorable, once you got past the eyebrows and the borderline-disturbing relationship with his teacher. Sakura's first Taijutsu class had been both painful and embarrassing. Spandex does everything for one's figure, but doing lunges and stretches in a class full of equally flexible green spandexed students means you have to find a particular spot on the ceiling and stare at it like it contains the meaning of life. Anything to avoid making eye contact.

She had walked into the massive gym, shoes squeaking against the floor, heavy gym bag gifted to her by Shizune cutting into her shoulder. The class were all clad in green spandex, and were all jogging around the gym, chanting, "IF I CAN'T JOG THREE HUNDRED LAPS I WILL DO FOUR HUNDRED PUSH UPS." Even Neji, she saw, was jogging obediently, though he was not wearing spandex. As he neared her, not even sweating or out of breath, he lifted her bag from her shoulder and, ignoring her protests, hauled it off to the corner of the gym were the students' bags were kept. Sakura was struck by the genuinely nice action of the stoic older teen, and just stood there, watching him jog.

A mistake.

"PERSEVERANCE IS THE FRUIT OF YOUTH." A deep voice suddenly bellowed from behind her. She shrieked, instinctively striking out behind her with a kick. It was caught by the most bizarre person she had ever seen in her life. He had a neatly trimmed bowl cut and massive rectangular eyebrows. He too was wearing spandex. It was a struggle to keep her eyes on his face. "You! Haruno! Your kick lacks heart!" He declared, striking a pose. He blew on his whistle and shouted, "Lee! Neji!"

Lee ran to the teacher's side so fast he was like a green blur with eyebrows. Neji sauntered casually over to them.

"You see this, Haruno?" The teacher – Sakura dimly recalled he was called Maito Gai – gestured to his two male students before him, "Strong fist!" He pointed to Lee, who had a look of immense concentration on his face. He punched the air. "Gentle fist!" Gai turned on Neji, who gave him a withering glare. Gai blew his whistle in his face. "And you! Haruno. Weak fist!"

Sakura scowled.

"You take this for an insult, huh? Having a weak fist does not make you weak, Haruno. A weak fist can be changed. Lee, for instance, used to be pathetic! Totally weak! An embarrassment of a ninja!" Lee nodded passionately. Neji rolled his eyes. "But he trained and trained and trained until the FLOWER. OF. HIS. YOUTH. BLOSSOMED." Gai's voice was either a boom or a roar. He could not seem to lower the volume. Sakura wanted to claw her own ears off.

"And Neji!" Gai roared. "He couldn't hurt a fly before attending this class!"

Neji looked indignant.

Gai shook his finger at him. "Physical strength is not like emotional strength. Being able to beat up a few guys does not make you strong if you don't have the willpower to beat up the rest. Hard work! Determination! And you too, Haruno. May have a STRONG FIST."

"Not a gentle one?" Sakura asked, trying to make a joke. It was like trying to kick God in the shins. Gai was not amused.

"No, Haruno. You are strong fist type!"

"How can you tell when you haven't seen me fight?" She asked, confused.

"LEE." Gai bellowed. "Get the TRAINING MAT."

Lee dutifully rushed off and dragged a blue mat out.

"Now. Haruno! Lee! Fight!"

Lee hopped onto the mat nimbly and held out a hand to help Sakura up. The moment she was securely standing, Lee outstretched the same hand in a distinctly badass pose. Sakura had a feeling she was not going to last long.

"Begin!" Gai shouted.

Lee was a blur. No other word could describe it. One moment Sakura was looking at him and the next he was behind her, hooking one leg around hers and digging and elbow into her back.

He promptly sat on her and held her arms behind her back.

"Get off me!" Sakura shouted, humiliated. Lee responded by loosening his grip slightly, like the gentleman he truly was.

From her squished position against the training mat, Sakura saw Neji's face, looking amused. Rage swept through her. Sakura swivelled on the mat, gaining some momentum, and trapped one of Lee's ankles between her own. It was far too easy, after that, to spin Lee around enough to break his grip on her wrists, and hit his collarbone with the heel of her hand.

"See?" Gai grinned. "Strong fist."

Lee kicked off of her to protect his face. Sakura leapt up and made as if to punch him with her right hand whilst her left foot snapped towards his face.

Lee caught the kick, just as she predicted, and she punched him with her left hand. Or at least, she tried to punch him. Lee simply moved his head away from her fist, and quickly captured that hand too. He held her left foot and hand up as she wobbled, off-balance.

"Call it a tie?" Lee asked nicely.

"No," Sakura sighed, "You win."

Lee released her and silently punched the air in passionate triumph.

"YOSH! Lee, that was excellent!" Gai roared.

"Gai-sensei!"

As Lee went to embrace his teacher, he accidently knocked Sakura off the training mat and she landed on her coccyx.

"Ouch." She said weakly.

"Are you alright?" A feminine voice asked, sounding concerned.

Sakura looked up. A tomboyish girl bent down to her level, with big chocolate brown eyes and her hair in buns. She was not wearing spandex either, just like Neji. "Yeah, I'm alright, thanks." Sakura said gratefully, allowing herself to be pulled up by the other girl.

"I'm Tenten." The girl gave a sweet smile, "And don't worry. Every single one of us – except for Neji – has been defeated by Lee at some point. Taijutsu's his best subject."

Gai and Lee were embracing, both of them sobbing with happiness.

"Yeah, they're weird." Tenten said bluntly.

Sakura, coccyx and ego still sore, was not pleased to see Neji easily defeat Lee in a one on one match. The self-satisfied look he threw at her afterwards served only to piss her off further. When she looked at Tenten to see her reaction to Neji's rudeness, Tenten was frowning at him, and he was smirking back.

* * *

As Sakura left Taijutsu class with a bruised lower back that made her walk with a hunch, she realised instantly that every student she passed was staring at her. A tall girl with big blue eyes and long platinum blonde hair stood in her way, flanked by two other girls.

Sakura was tired, sweaty and her hair was no longer in a secure bun, but fell to her ears in straggly bunches. The girls each gave her an incredulous look that started with her scuffed shoes and ended with her messy hair. They then burst out laughing and pushed past her. It was beyond humiliating, especially as they had all looked so effortlessly beautiful.

**Sulky**

_Ignore them._

04/09/11

13:06:18

Sakura glanced up from her phone to see Sasuke at his locker, watching the girls walk past.

The blonde stopped to talk to him. Sakura couldn't hear his reply, but it had to be harsh, judging by the scowl on his face and the way the blonde immediately blanched and tottered off with her friends, in a hurry.

Sakura mouthed 'thank you.'

Sasuke gave a little wave in acknowledgment.

_

* * *

__I definitely used the word 'coccyx' too much in this chapter, lol. I wonder how many times? Hinata and the rest of Team 8 will return shortly, and the grand arrival of Naruto will hopefully be spectacular! Anyone guess who the bitchy blonde was? And yes, the Taijutsu class was the most fun I've had writing in a long time. I get the feeling this chapter was way too long, sorry._

_Thank you, everyone who reviewed or faved or alerted or even secretly quite liked this story. I didn't expect such a warm reaction!_


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